Huron community north of Quebec City opens innovative museum, hotel

Aboriginal drumbeats herald a hot, new tourism destination. The innovative Hôtel-Musée Premières Nations just north of Quebec City is an ingenious blend of traditional Indian themes and stunning contemporary design.

The landmark hotel opened March 7 in the heart of Wendake, a community settled by the Hurons in the mid-1600s after the Iroquois forced them to flee their homes in the Great Lakes region.

Today, Wendake is a tidy, bustling town that is home to about 1,500 people as well as a tourist stop with two B&Bs, the Sagamité Restaurant and craft shops along a lively main street. The community's Huron-

Wendat Traditional Site, a re-creation of a native village, is a cultural, historic and educational experience.

The Hôtel-Musée Premières Nations, on the edge of Old Wendake, is a striking architectural concept that connects a modern hotel and restaurant with a jewel of a museum.

"The aim of the hotel is to reflect Huron and First Nations cultures," said Christian Robert, the hotel's general manager. "But it is the culture of 2008. We are not doing folklore, but we are doing history."

The hotel's design is rooted deeply in nature. The sleek lobby features hand-hewn tree trunks, stone floors and leather furniture draped with coyote and bear skins. On the white walls is an informal gallery of native art - paintings, furs and objects like arrows and carved pipes decorated with feathers.

The hotel's guest rooms and common areas have been built with expansive floor-to-ceiling windows facing a forest of maple and birch. The St. Charles River, named the Akiawenrahk in the Huron language, rushes by below. "The large windows opening onto the forest and river are meant to suggest the absence of borders or boundaries," Robert said. "In First Nations' cultures, land belongs to everyone."

Created by the Conseil de la nation Huron-Wendat, the governing body of Wendake, and other First Nations groups throughout Quebec, the Hôtel-Musée Premières Nations is a thoroughly modern interpretation. The hotel has 55 rooms on three levels, linked by elevators. Equipped with plasma televisions, wireless Internet, fancy bathtubs and private patios or balconies, the spacious rooms are warmed by such touches as log tables and beds covered with Hudson's Bay wool blankets and beaver-skin pillows. Some suites have bearskin rugs and fireplaces.

Already a hit, the Hôtel-Musée Premières Nations rates four stars out of five on Quebec Tourism's scale. Within a few months, the landscaping will be complete. Still to come are a gift shop, a Nordic spa and the Garden of Three Sisters, a spiritual tribute to the three traditional staple crops - corn, beans and squash.

"We are truly a boutique hotel," Robert said, "because, when the gift shop opens this summer, you will be able to buy most of the items that you see - the Indian crafts, the blankets, furs and even the down sleeping pillows."

About half of the hotel's staff of 50 are of First Nations origin, many of them graduates of a regional CEGEP course that included on-the-job training. Service at the reception desk and restaurant is professional, but there is no bellman or car valet.

"To keep the prices moderate, our clientele handles their own luggage," Robert said.

The hotel's executive chef, Martin Gagné, has worked at resort hotels, including Manoir Hovey in North Hatley. He handles special occasions, business meetings and the hotel's swish La Traite restaurant, the hottest and most creative table, on the outskirts of Quebec City.

"Our cuisine is inspired by First Nations foods but presented in a modern style," Gagné said. "All of our spices, herbs and edible flowers grow wild in Quebec's north. They're supplied by a biologist who harvests them north of Lac St. Jean."

Gagné cooks almost exclusively with ingredients that are fresh from the farm, the forest or lakes and rivers. For accents, he uses flavours of Quebec's northern forests, including lavender, boreal cayenne pepper, fennel, Labrador tea, and wild wasabi root. Appetizers include goat cheese with wildflower honey, a tomato napoleon with onion confit, preserved duck with pine nuts, smoked sturgeon and smoked trout. The main course menu features arctic char, venison, rabbit, pheasant, pike and wapiti. Extras range from Indian bannock to traditional Quebec sugar pie.

Even breakfast is innovative, with such choices as baked beans with goose meat, buckwheat pancakes, salmon smoked in-house or omelettes stuffed with wild mushrooms.

The Huron-Wendat Museum, adjacent to the hotel, is built in a cone shape, recalling an Algonquin smoke house and the warmth of a hearth. The design, without protective defences, suggests peace and harmony. With its humidity and climate controls, the museum houses native carvings, intricate beadwork, a birch-bark canoe and videos of wildlife.

At the site, which is holding special events this summer to mark the 400th anniversary of Québec City's founding, visitors can enjoy a First Nations experience that mixes old and new. About 20 torch-carriers, dancers, singers and actors will make the night come alive when Kiugwe, a musical show, takes the stage of an outdoor amphitheatre on weekends from July 18 to Sept. 7.

The Huron title Kiugwe translates as "the great meeting," and the show tells the story of the creation of the Earth according to First Nations' legends.

Wendake is a 2 1/2-hour drive from Montreal, or 15 minutes north of downtown Quebec City. Take Highway 40 to Highways 73 and 573 north.

Hotel-Musée Premières Nations: 866-551-9222, 5 Place de la Rencontre (Ekionkiestha); rooms cost $135-$170 per night for two people; executive suites, $190-$220; children 18 under stay for free, additional adults pay $20. With breakfast and dinner, $219-$304 for two people. All rates include entrance to museum. Packages available with canoeing, visits to the Huron-

Wendat Traditional Site and to the Kiugwe musical show.

Four-course dinner at La Traite, $34-$39; or for six courses, $50 per person.

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